Due to environmental concerns, governmental entities have steadily imposed stricter limits on the amount and type of exhaust emitted by vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. Moreover, the amount of noise produced by such engines must also meet stringent standards. While such limits may improve air quality and decrease noise pollution, such limits also produce severe drawbacks in increased fuel consumption and decreased power production by the affected engines. It is believed that such drawbacks are a result of back pressure of exhaust gas created by the very equipment that muffles the noise and cleans the exhaust gas. Accordingly, it is believed that such drawbacks can be mitigated by equipment that will increase exhaust flow-through.
Various systems have been proposed to provide a more efficient means of reducing noise and/or air pollution from internal combustion engine exhaust. Some such proposed systems are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,015 to Kojima; U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,918 to Michikawa; U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,213 to Taniguchi; U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,502 to Harris et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,143 to Taniguchi; U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,456 to Kasper; U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,196 to Everett; U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,753 to Lyman; U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,539 to Kashiwara et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,692 to Iapella et al. However, the quest to decrease noise and exhaust emissions, while off-setting the concomitant decreases in fuel efficiency and power production, proves to be an ongoing struggle.